OPINION:
OK, full disclosure — I’m an Air Force Academy grad. I had the crap drilled out of me my first year at the Blue Zoo and the military intensity was constant the entire four years until graduation. In fact, during the end of my freshman year, our “Hell Week” for myself and fellow classmates, saw approximately 300 students sent to the hospital for physical overexertion.
That was too far. However, I just have to say, “What the Hell is going on at our military academies?” These are supposed to be our future officers, our country’s future leaders. If so, they are not making them like they used to.
I visited one of the service academies recently and I was shocked. Military decorum was almost non-existent. I actually saw a cadet at noon meal formation with a hole the size of a quarter in the toe of his corframs. Are you freaking kidding me? Military bearing was practically nonexistent. Cadets chatting, touching their hair while at attention, talking on their cell phones. Unbelievable!
This week a female West Point cadet was seen on her cell phone while marching to graduation! And, we’ve all seen the black power salute given by black, female cadets recently.
All of this is completely unacceptable.
USAF pilots, upon returning from captivity in Vietnam, spoke of their fourth class year at USAFA and how it prepared them for years in the Hanoi Hilton. How are cadets going to handle the attention to detail needed to fly an F-22 successfully in combat if they can’t even march to lunch correctly?
The Obama administration has succeeded in changing our military culture, where it hurts, where they make our future leaders, officers and gentlemen. The Left likes to say none of this will affect readiness or our ability to fly, fight, and win. On the contrary, when discipline in nonexistent, unit cohesion, leadership, the will to fight, is nonexistent.
The next president has a big job on his hands to bring our military back from the brink. I recently had a debate on Twitter with a female USAFA grad regarding how the academy changed the “Bring Me Men” declaration above the cadet ramp to a bunch of PC dribble. In her opinion, political correctness was Okto advance women. God help us. I told her no, the purpose of our academy is to make warriors, not advance societal experiments.
As Gen. George S. Patton so famously said, “If you can’t get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.